By Maria Verza | Related Press
MEXICO CITY — Just a few thousand folks took to the streets of Mexico Metropolis on Saturday to protest rising crime, corruption and impunity in a protest organized by members of Technology Z, however which ended with sturdy backing from older supporters of opposition events.
In a number of nations this yr, members of the demographic group born between the late 90s and early 2010s have organized protests in opposition to inequality, democratic backsliding and corruption.
The biggest “Gen Z” protests happened in Nepal in September, following a ban on social media, and led to the resignation of that nation’s prime minister. In Mexico, many younger folks say they’re pissed off with systemic issues like corruption and impunity for violent crimes.
“We want extra safety,” mentioned Andres Massa, a 29-year-old enterprise marketing consultant who carried the pirate cranium flag that has change into a world image of Gen Z protests.
Claudia Cruz, a 43-year-old doctor who joined the protests, mentioned she was marching for extra funding for the general public well being system, and for higher safety as a result of medical doctors “are additionally uncovered to the insecurity gripping the nation, the place you might be murdered and nothing occurs.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum nonetheless has excessive approval rankings regardless of a current spate of high-profile murders that features the assassination of a preferred mayor within the western state of Michoacan.
Within the days main as much as Saturday’s protest, Sheinbaum accused right-wing events of attempting to infiltrate the Gen Z motion and of utilizing bots on social media to attempt to enhance attendance.
This week, some “Gen Z” social media influencers mentioned they now not backed Saturday’s protests. On the similar time, aged figures like former President Vicente Fox and Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego printed messages in help of the protests.
Saturday’s march was attended by folks from a number of age teams, with supporters of the not too long ago killed Michoacan Mayor Carlos Manzo attending the protest carrying the straw hats that symbolize his political motion.
“The state is dying,” mentioned Rosa Maria Avila, a 65-year-old actual property agent who traveled from the city of Patzcuaro in Michoacan state.
“He was killed as a result of he was a person who was sending officers into the mountains to combat delinquents. He had the heart to confront them,” she mentioned of Manzo.
